Pitchfork

Coldplay are going to great lengths to find out if you love them (won't ya let them know) with first Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends single "Violet Hill". In a video floating around yesterday but since pulled from YouTube (expect that to show up somewhere soon), the British rockers went to Italy and showed you the fine work the English dentistry profession has done on their teeth. Now, in this "alternate" video, Coldplay are getting a bit closer to the grandiose revolutionary spectacle of their latest album cover. George W. Bush declaring war on Iraq! Rockets being launched! Archival clips cut in and out through static over the song's "Where the Streets Have No Name"-esque opening ambient swell (thanks, Brian Eno). From there it's really-- and I say this as someone who never quite got Coldplay-- pretty great to watch. Bush conducts a military band, Tony Blair strums an electric guitar, and Bush dances, all in time with the music.

That's only the first minute. The Clintons, Barack Obama, and MC Rove all make their appearances, too, even as Chris Martin sings about "a carnival of idiots" and how he doesn't "wanna be a soldier" (hey neither did John Lennon). Then it's Boris Yeltsin, terrorists, soldiers, Coldplay in Italy, fireworks, conflagrations... Good God, man! With the late but still perfect timing of a John Edwards presidential endorsement, Coldplay have done something both funny and potentially controversial. Does this mean Michael Moore could've married Gwyneth Paltrow?

[from Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends; due 06/16/08 in the UK on Parlophone and 06/17/08 in the U.S. on Capitol]